Today's well, duh research grant:
An Indiana University researcher is joining cohorts from three other universities in a study that will look at why children's grades often suffer when their families lose their homes to foreclosure.
IU assistant professor Ashlyn Aiko Nelson says previous research has shown that the experience of losing one's home and being forced to move can negatively impact a child's grades. But she says it's unclear why that's the case.
Unclear? Really? It's unclear why children's grades suffer when their families lose their homes? Well, let's just put on our thinking caps, shall we? How about the gnawing fear of losing a home and the abject terror of not knowing what the future might bring? Could that just possibly, maybe, perhaps, cause a kid to lose concentration a tiny little bit when he's staring at a multiple choice test?
This excursion into the obvious is being funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to the tune of $800,000. Nice work if you can get it.
